A Dozen Eggs — Painted in a 12-Step Color Wheel

I thought I’d create a bunch of 3-dimensional eggs and ‘paint’ them with some of my other fabric designs.

First, here’s how I created a 3d egg in Adobe Illustrator (version CS5).

Draw an ellipse with the Ellipse Tool (see photo below)

Using the Direct Selection Tool, edit the points of the ellipse to make it egg-shaped

Delete the points on the left side of the ellipse

Use the command Effect ==> 3D ==> Revolve to create the 3-dimentional egg

Once I was happy with my 3D egg shape, I needed to apply the designs to the eggs. I did this in Illustrator, adding a step to Step 4 above. First you need to add any artwork you want to use to the Symbols Palette (see this tutorial for help creating symbols).

4a. In Step 4 above, once the “3D Revolve Options” box is open, click on the “Map Art” button. Select the symbol you want to use. Click the “Preview” box so you can resize or reposition the symbol if needed. When everything looks good, click the OK button.

Here are a bunch of eggs that I “painted” with some of my fabric designs:

I had a problem with the image resolution when using my fabric designs for the eggs. The contest called for an 8 by 8 inch design, so I was trying to make my eggs about 1 inch high. However, when I applied the designs to the eggs, the resolution was pretty poor. So I opted for a simpler approach. I created solid-color eggs and then mapped a ‘brush stroke’ of another color onto the eggs.

Here’s my first attempt.

And here it is in repeat:

I made a couple changes for my final design. I made the colors much brighter, and I changed the design to a half-drop repeat to break up the pattern a bit. Here’s the final design.

And here it is in repeat.

You can see all the Painted Egg designs in Spoonflower’s contest here. Visit Nina-Marie’s blog for Off the Wall Fridays and be inspired.

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I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called Mother and Child Reunion. It’s chicken and eggs. And I said, I gotta use that one. — Paul Simon

I could not, would not, on a boat.
I will not, will not, with a goat.
I will not eat them in the rain.
I will not eat them on a train.
Not in the dark! Not in a tree!
Not in a car! You let me be!
I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox.
I will not eat them in a house.
I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them ANYWHERE
I do not like green eggs and ham!
I do not like them, Sam-I-am. — Dr. Seuss